When I first heard about the game, I almost expected it to be a cross between Mirror's Edge and Audiosurf, but now that I see the actual concept, I think that the current expression of how the music is displayed is a much better idea. There were a couple of things that needed improvement, but ultimately I like the design of the game, and the fluency it has.

Just a couple of things I saw needed work:

A bit of animation needed to flow better. An example of this is how the runner would jump over a barrier, then sort of roll forward and immediately be on her feet. I understand fluent animations may be hard to incorporate all the time, but in a game like this, it's completely necessary to up the quality and playability. This could help with player immersion...?

There probably should've been a bit more diversity within the... Elements... of everything here. To me, it almost seemed really static. I understand that you're working on the backgrounds changing between levels, but it needs... something more. It's all the Ice cream, the syrup, the cherry on top and all... but it's missing something. Sprinkles?

As far as the game looked in the trailer, the basics of the game were displayed. It might be a good idea to incorporate difficulty settings in with the music, because there might be that one song somebody really likes, but it's way too easy to go anywhere with, and that player is going to lose a lot of interest in the game.

It might also be a good idea to have a point system. Competition is an excellent idea, and will keep players coming back for more, or to hold territory on a leaderboard.

Have a way to let players individualize themself. Character creation is a great idea, and mabye even a bit of level color customization (Intense levels don't have to be red! Let the players choose!).

I hope that this has been of help to you. I am really looking forward to the release of the game, and hope to buy a copy when it comes out!

If you're looking for things to refer to, I suggest looking at the gameplay of Mirror's Edge 2D[web-static.ea.com].

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see this post until today. Thanks for taking the time to give me your input.

* While I'd love to add more frames, the fact is that the fast rhythm gameplay requires twitchy animations that finishes quickly, so interpolating two animations together would miss a beat completly by the time that they are over. I have to decide between smoothness and intensive/precise gameplay (especially since there is a margin of error allowed for the player to react, so I also have to take the "worst timing" case into consideration.

* I understand that everything must feel plain and vanilla at the moment, but I am concentrating on the core gameplay experience first. Rest assured that I will spend quite some time polishing the graphics and adding all kind of eye candy. After all it's my favorite part of gamedev :)

* Difficulties/point system are planned, with online leaderboards.

* Color customization is definitly planned since I care about colorblind people and I want them to be able to choose the colors that they can easilly indentify.

Just wanted to say that now I have read your explanation of the animations (even though I wish they were more fluid) I understand the reasoning behind your choice and okay with it. I guess I revert back to a single suggestion of more variety in backgrounds. That is all. Keep up the good work and good luck.

While that is true, BPM isn't always stable (if it's not stable enough I use an other method to detect sound peaks, which works awesomely I must say).Anyway, I've fixed or will fix most animations that need fixing (like the wall kick, working on it right now)

Sorry for another bump (Two times in a single thread? It's a new record!), but I just saw the newest video, and I gotta say, WOAH.

I mean, I'm completely taken aback by how... AMAZING this looks. It's certainly come a long way from the first video. I'm pretty sure that everything I found that neded improvement in the original post here was covered, and I'm glad to see a lot of added difficulty! A challenge is always good to have, and will definitely keep people coming back to play this game.